Skyrocketing gas prices are crippling the budgets of Americans, as Bush has newly discovered. But he doesn’t have a solution. Nor does Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Bush’s every response to energy problems is to drill for more oil and blame China. McCain has a more evolved position: his solution is to drill for more oil andbuild nuclear power plants, and blame China andterrorists. But neither will address a major culprit in the recent shocking spike in oil futures and gas prices — the collapse of the American dollar due to a vicious circle of shortsighted right-wing economic policies.

When asked if OPEC followed his call to increase production, how much oil prices would fall, Bush replied: “I’m just a simple president. But I really don’t know what it would do.” McCain was baffled when asked on 60 Minutes what he would do for the person facing rising gas prices: “I would love to tell you that I have an immediate answer for that. And I don’t.“

The lower dollar reduces supply and increases demand, thus raising oil prices. As a result, the value of US oil imports increases, which in turn widens the trade deficit, which weakens the dollar further.

Bush and Bernanke’s policies are creating inflationary pressure on the U.S. economy and making our financial markets riskier. This one-two punch drives the flight from the dollar into stable foreign economies and commodities like oil. Democratic attempts to fix the systemic problems and buffer American citizens from the whiplash on the job and at the pump are being stonewalled by Senate Republicans, Bush vetoes, and corruption in the executive branch.

John McCain, who happily admitted in December that “the issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should,” followed up with a troubling preview of how he would guide the American economy through these troubled waters: